Australia, Get Ready For 60-Day Heatwaves!

Newsroom

Posted on August 26, 2016

Heatwaves that last for one month each year and give Australia 10 per cent less water are just some of the impacts predicted if the world does not meet the optimist's goal of the international climate agreement.

New research has shown that Australia would be significantly warmer if the world were to warm up by 1.5C and it could lead to temperatures getting up to 10 degrees higher.

If that does happen, temperatures in the north of the country will experience heat waves for one month a year, while the south would get two weeks.

It would end up with coal reefs being severely impacted as there would 10 per cent less water on average, with some regions getting 30 per cent less.

Last year 196 parties agreed to try and keep global warming well below 2C. Currently, the earth is experiencing warming of about 1C, a level which is already dangerous.

“At two degrees, our global climate system would move from the upper end of present-day climate variability into uncharted territory, resulting in extreme, costly and dangerous impacts for Australia,” chief executive John Connor said.

The basic message is, the longer the country puts off high action, the harder it will become.

That’s because the globe has a “carbon budget” to keep global warming under 2C and if Australia keeps using its allocation of that budget now, there will be less to access later.